Working at GESS

Thank you for your interest in GESS!

The German European School Singapore (GESS) – situated on a lush green hillside in tropical Singapore - is a private school association led by an elected Board and the school management. We offer education to students aged 18 months to 18 years. Our German Section, founded in 1971, offers all German school leaving certificates including Abitur and is subsidised by the German Federal Government. Our English-speaking European Section, in operation since 2005, teaches the curricula IB Diploma, Middle Years and Primary Years Programme. Around 1,500 students attend our school with more than 300 full and part-time employees working at our two campuses.

Application

If you are interested in working at GESS, please have a look at our open positions. In addition, we welcome speculative applications which you can send to us via this link. We will keep your application in our database and contact you in case an opportunity that matches your profile arises.

Please note that to be considered for a role, you are required to submit your application via our career site as all our recruitment processes are managed via our online recruitment tool. For your application to be considered, please submit it as a single pdf-file that is not bigger than 5MB.

If you are applying for a teaching position, we expect a cover letter stating your motivation to work at our school as well as an up-to-date CV including a photograph, certificates of your former teaching qualifications, written employment reference letters from previous employment and contact details of two relevant referees, who can also be contacted by telephone. Generally, these should include your current principal.

We are fortunate to receive a great number of applications. Therefore, we appreciate your understanding that we can only notify applicants who have been shortlisted.

As an applicant, to teach the German curriculum, you need to have completed your teacher training (1. and 2. state examination or equivalent degree from Austria or Switzerland). You need to be a German native speaker and possess a very good command of English, as well as confident computer skills.

For the English-speaking IB curriculum, you need to have completed a national or international teacher training qualification. Experience with the IBO programmes PYP, MYP and DP is highly desirable. Knowledge of the German language is not required but is advantageous.

If you are applying for a teaching position at our GESS Pre-School, we expect you to have completed your training as a pre-school teacher or to possess comparable educational qualifications. We accept applications throughout the year.

You will fit right in when you are passionate about teaching, you deliver your lessons methodically, you are flexible, student-oriented and your teaching is based on solid subject knowledge. You enjoy being fully committed to teaching, working with students, colleagues and parents because we value individual student support, proactive cooperation with our parents, involvement in educational school development and active participation in our daily school life.

We have high expectations of our teachers and offer an attractive salary package as well as an inspiring international environment with a highly motivated and qualified faculty, amicable students, a rich school life with many opportunities, excellent facilities and professional development opportunities.

Local applications from within Singapore for posts within our administration are welcome from persons of any nationality. They too will be kept on file. Strong computer and language communication skills (German/English) and sales or administrative training and experience are essential. You should enjoy working in a small, flexible and friendly team and thrive in a busy environment.

The personnel planning for a school year commences up to a year in advance so that initial job advertisements are usually published between September and December for positions commencing in August of the following year.

The interview process starts as early as October and comprises of Skype interviews as well as face-to-face interviews in Singapore, Asia and Europe. Furthermore, GESS regularly attends selected job fairs. Since international schools sometimes face unexpected student and employee turnover, we also have to fill vacancies at short notice and therefore welcome applications throughout the year.

Our students are our most valuable assets. As any professional international school, GESS has a Child Protection Policy. Our recruitment process reflects this policy in that we ask for a police clearance check and further background checks for shortlisted candidates.

The English speaking European Section of GESS is a fully fledged International Baccalaureate World School, and one of the few in the world who are authorised to deliver the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (IBDP).

Since opening in 2005, the European Section has grown rapidly to become a school with a reputation for quality education with a strong community feel. We now have over 600 students. The vast majority of our students are European passport holders, for whom GESS represents a vital connection with home. Students are thus provided with a safe, friendly and familiar environment in which they are challenged to thrive as they grow into independent and responsible global citizens.

Our academic and pastoral programmes are designed to support this demographic and ultimately to prepare our students for returning to Europe or for entry into European universities. To this end we endeavor to support mother tongue language acquisition so that our students do not lose this vital connection with their home culture. Fortunately, given the high entry requirements into European schools and colleges, this also means that our students are especially well prepared for study all over the world, particularly North America, the UK and Australia.

The Pre-School department provides education from 18 month to 6 years in either English or German. Children are placed in groups according to their age.

Since the school was founded in 1971, the school has evolved into a school with two sections. As an accredited “Excellent German School Abroad”, the German Section of the German European School Singapore (GESS) offers all major German school leaving certificates. The European Section is an authorized IB World School offering education in English across all three IB programmes.

The German Section supports the students to develop their German roots. We give them wings for the linguistic demands of a globalized world through our differentiated English programme from grade 1 onwards. In secondary school some subjects are taught in English. Our students are benefitting from numerous bonding activities and have additional space to enjoy the internationality of the school.

Our Pre-Schooldepartment provides education from 18 month to 6 years in either English or German. Children are placed in groups according to their age.